A NOTE ON MULTIPLE ACCESS TO TACTICAL COMMUNICATION SATELLITES: NETS, NETWORK CONTROL, AND RANDOM ACCESS.

Abstract : The document questions the importance, and even the desirability, of random access for a communication satellite designated to service tactical communications. The desirability of random access for a tactical communication satellite has achieved wide acceptance. Some proposals for multiple access systems to be used with tactical communication satellites have discarded candidate systems because they do not provide the potential for random access. However, the characteristics of random access are most useful for a network of users such as that served by the public telephone system. Tactical communications possess two characteristics which distinguish its users from those of the telephone system: (1) Crisis Operation. A most important measure of a tactical communication system is how well it operates in times of crisis when communication traffic is abnormally great. (2) Coordinated Use. Users tend to organize into functional groupings for which netted communications are very useful. (Author)